Mobile phones: we're dependent and it's changing our relationships

Observe any train carriage, bus, pavement, pub, burger bar, shop, someone will be texting or chatting or taking a photo.

Brits are obsessed with their phones, to the extent that 90% said they couldn’t go a whole day without using their phone.

Hour, more like.

The mobile phone can also act as a deterrent: 54% of females under 25 said they had used one when out alone to put people off from approaching them.

1 in 10 people have had their handset stolen; at the same time, nearly half said they would use their mobile to record a crime in progress.

The Carphone Warehouse, who commissioned the survey, concluded that there are six ‘tribes’ of mobile users:

Generation Mobile: 18-24s students/1st jobbers

Phonatics: 18-34s – mobile very important

Practical Parents: young price-conscious families

Fingers and Thumbs: middle-aged – presumably not too tech-savvy

Smart Connected: 25-44s use mobiles for work and social life

Silver Cynics: approaching retirement

In related news, over half of mobile users aged 18-24 have used their
phone to ask someone out (or be asked out) on a date, or exchanged
sexually-explicit text messages.

Only half agreed that flirting via text message (with someone else, presumably) would be a form of cheating on their partner.
"It acts as a kind of subliminal zone, an exclusive forum where the
normal social rules are suspended," said Kate Fox, director of the
Social Issues Research Centre.